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And some people still think Chris Froome is too nice, too polite to be a sporting great.

Team Sky's leader sealed his place in cycling history on Sunday, safely negotiating the final stage of La Vuelta to become the first rider to win Spain's national tour straight after winning the Tour de France as the race ended beneath a spectacular sunset in Madrid.

This, though, was not your usual run-of-the-mill finish. The final stages of grand tours are supposed to be ceremonial, at least for the general classification contenders. But Froome, increasingly, does not appear inclined to give his rivals an inch.

Not content with taking the red jersey for the overall race winner, and the white for best in the combined classification, Froome contested the final bunch sprint on a packed Paseo del Prado, finishing 11th beneath the setting sun to wrap up the green points jersey, too.

Matteo Trentin, the QuickStep rider who won the stage – his fourth stage win of the race – seemed genuinely shocked to be denied the jersey in such fashion. “Chris told me he wanted to defend the green jersey and he did it,” the Italian said rather forlornly. “I won four stages so it’s kind of a joke not to win the green jersey but it’s like this.”

Froome only needed to stay upright in the final processional stageCredit:
AFP/Getty Images

It is increasingly like this. Froome may have the mild-mannered exterior of a work experience kid but inside he is completely ruthless. Not quite Eddy Merckx ruthless – The Cannibal was so ravenous he helped himself to more than 500 race wins in his career including 11 grand tours.

But that is the sort of company Froome is now starting to keep.

This was his fifth grand tour win, but it put him in a new bracket in terms of his stature within the sport. It was his first outside of the Tour de France; a double no rider has ever managed before (winning the Vuelta straight after the Tour). It was arguably the most impressive achievement from a British rider in cycling history.

Speaking of records, Froome actually almost set an unwanted one about half an hour before the end of the race, flirting with disaster as he contested an intermediate sprint with a few laps remaining of the Paseo del Prado. No GC leader has yet thrown away a grand tour win on the final ceremonial stage.

Froome says he is not going to hold his breath over a SPOTY nominationCredit:
REUTERS

Maybe he was just a bit heady after the beer and champagne consumed on the way in to Madrid, but it was another example of Froome's willingness to contest everything.

“Of course it was a risk I might crash in a bunch sprint, but at the end of the day I’m a bike racer,” he said afterwards. “It was probably my only chance of winning a green jersey in my career. When I wake up tomorrow I wanted to be able to say that I tried at least.”

Not that this latest victory will change much. Froome was as polite as ever on the winner’s podium, saying all the right things – in both English and Spanish – and thanking the right people. But he knows his latest achievement has not made huge waves back in Britain. He no longer expects to.

After missing out on a BBC Sports Personality nomination last year despite claiming his third Tour title in four years (as well as an Olympic bronze medal and second place in the Vuelta a Espana) Froome was asked whether he thought he might get a look-in this year. “I’m not going to hold my breath,” he said, laughing.

We are in familiar territory here. The ‘why is Froome not more popular than he is?’ debate that normally follows his Tour victories.

Partly, of course, it has to do with Sky; the questions which remain over the unresolved UK Anti-Doping investigation; the Therapeutic Use Exemption saga; Sir Dave Brailsford’s clumsy attempts to make that story go away; the cynicism of a public already wearied from years of doping scandals. Partly it is Froome's upbringing, the fact he was born and grew up in Africa, lives in Monaco and does not come back to Britain all that much.

But never mind the calls for BBC SPOTY awards or knighthoods - there is always far too much made of that.

By any objective reckoning – in pure sporting terms, and assuming he is clean – he should surely be recognised by now as one of the greats, not simply of cycling but of British sport?

Where does Froome go from here? Not to next May’s Giro d’Italia; that much seems certain. As much as Froome would like to do the so-called Tiger Slam – to hold all three major titles at the same time – his priority is that fifth Tour de France crown. “I think a lot will depend on the routes,” he said, not entirely convincingly, when asked about the possibility of riding next year’s Giro. “I’ll see what the organisers lay down for us before I make any decisions. I’m not writing it off …

“But at the same time, it is a risk. Because you are always going to be on that knife-edge physically [going for two grand tours back to back]. And I mean, to win a fifth Tour, that would be the golden prize for me.”

Froome could hold all three big titles at once if he wins next year's Giro D'ItaliaCredit:
REUTERS

In other words, no Giro next year. And, one imagines, no Giro in 2019, either, given Froome will be hell-bent on getting the record outright and winning a sixth Tour if he wins a fifth.

These are all subjects for another day, though. For now, it is enough to appreciate what Froome has done this summer. Because there is a danger we are becoming blasé about his achievements. There are still important outstanding questions which remain over Sky's use of TUEs and cortisone and painkillers. That trust will not be easy to regain.

But the fact is - again, assuming they are now doing things right - Froome and Sky planned and executed this summer to perfection. They arrived at the Tour de France, in Froome's own words, under-cooked and under-raced, but got stronger as that race went on. They then put the time between grand tours to good use; Froome and his coach Tim Kerrison seeking out obscure roads near Chatel in the Haute Savoie to try to prepare for the 20 per cent-plus ramps he would find on Los Machucos and the Angliru.

“We had some very amusing sessions on what were basically goat tracks up the side of a mountain,” he said, smiling innocently.